WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/366 
28 February 2011  
 (11-0993) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN UNION
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above : 
 European Commission EU - TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu
 
Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/   
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Wine 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 607/2009  laying down certain detailed rules for the 
implementation of Council Regula tion (EC) No 479/2008 as regard s protected designations of 
origin and geographical indications, traditional terms, labelling and presentation of certain 
wine sector products (11 pages, in English). 
6. Description of content:  This draft Regulation amends  Commission Regulation (EC) 
No 607/2009 (notified under reference G/TBT/N/ EEC/264) which details implementing rules 
relating to issues dealt with in Chapters III, IV and V of Title III of Council Regulation (EC) 
No 479/2008, namely, protected designations of origin and geographical indications, 
traditional terms, labelling and presenta tion of certain wine sector products.  
The amendments of Regulation (EC) No  607/2009 concern the following points: 
1. On protected designations of origin and geographical indications, as regards the 
applicant requirement, transitional measures ar e provided for the transmission of technical 
files of existing protected wine names referr ed to in Article 118s  of Regulation (EC) 
No 1234/2007. 
2.  On traditional terms: G/TBT/N/EEC/366 
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  -  Annex VIII to Regulation (EC) No 607/2009 as regards the prior rights which may be 
claimed in case of an oppos ition against an application for protection of a traditional 
term are corrected; 
-  The information indicated in Annex XII to Regulation (EC) No 607/2009 relating to 
traditional terms are transferred to the electronic database 'E-Bacchus' and new 
information related to the protection of tr aditional terms are exclusively included in 
that database; thus gathering protected de signations of origin, protected geographical 
indications and protected traditional terms in a single IT tool, easily available for consultation purposes. As a consequence, a number of EU legal provisions which 
refer to 'Annex XII' are cleaned-up; 
-  In order to improve the transparency of  the rules concerning traditional terms, in 
particular due to the fact that they are moved to the electronic database 'E-Bacchus', any modification relating to traditional terms shall follow a formally defined 
procedure; 
-  In order to avoid any discrimination be tween wines originating in the Union and 
those imported from third countries, it has be en clarified that terms traditionally used 
in third countries may obtain recognition a nd protection as traditional terms in the 
Union also where they are used in conj unction with geographi cal indications or 
names of origin regulated by those third countries; 
-  In order to clarify the relationship between protected tr aditional terms and 
trademarks, it is necessary to specify on what legal basis an application for a 
trademark containing or consisting of a prot ected traditional term shall be assessed. 
3.  On labelling and presentation: -  Rules are provided for the indication of th e alcoholic strength by volume of certain 
specific grapevine products in order to provi de the public with accurate information; 
-  In order to facilitate less burdensome labelling, certain information related to the 
name and the address of the bottler may in some circumstances not be required; 
-  In order to improve controls of certai n grapevine products, Member States shall be 
allowed to regulate the use of particular s referring to producer and processor; 
-  For the sake of simplification, the list of representative trade organisations and their 
members provided in Annex XI to Regulation (EC) No 607/2009 are published on 
the Internet; 
-  The use of a specific type of bottle and closure for sparkling wines, quality sparkling 
wines and quality aromatic sparkling wines shall be obligatory exclusively for the marketing and the export of such wines produced in the European Union. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:  The 
objective is to prevent deceptive practices and to protect consumers.  
8. Relevant documents:   Commission regulation (EC) No 607/2009 of 14 July 2009 laying 
down certain detailed rules fo r the implementation of Counc il Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 
as regards protected designations of origin and geographical indicatio ns, traditional terms, 
labelling and presentation of ce rtain wine sector products 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2009:193:0060:0139:EN:PDF  
Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common 
organisation of agricultural ma rkets and on specific provision s for certain agricultural 
products (Single CMO Regulation) 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2007:299:0001:0149:EN:PDF     G/TBT/N/EEC/366 
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  9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    April 2011 
7 days from publication in the Official Journal  of the EU 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or addre ss, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU - TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU - TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.e u/enterprise/tbt/   
and can be downloaded at: http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2011/tbt/eec/11_0538_00_e.pdf